ADDICTED | j.p x oc

35

Her eyes burned with tears that she quickly blinked away, turning to head back to Marlene.

"Get up, we need to leave," El said suddenly, grabbing her coat and throwing it round her shoulders.

"What?"

"Marls, we're leaving, come on," they shared an understanding in their eye contact, Marlene now being able to sense El's severity.

Pulling several coins out her pocket to leave on the table, Marlene copied El and put on her coat before following her out the pub.

"El, what happened?" Marlene ran to catch up with her friends fast pace. "God, slow down!"

An internal battle was occurring in Eleanors mind, weighing up what could happen if she informed someone that Regulus Black was now a death eater. The information about the identities of death eaters was incredibly useful to The Order, but their knowledge of this would mean Regulus could end up in azkaban.

"I need to speak to Sirius," El announced, turning her walking to the direction of the shrieking shack.

"El, you can't until morning, the moon will be up in half an hour!" the blonde reached for Els arm to pull her back, chasing after her when she failed to do so. "Tell me what happened!"

Ignoring her friends pleas, El continued to march up to the shack, which was now in sight, climbing up the hill that it sat on and pushing the rickety door open so forcefully it almost fell off its hinges.

"Sirius!" she called.

Some shuffling was heard in the room above, before two boys descended the stairs, leaving Remus with Peter, presumably asleep.

"What the fuck are you two doing here?!" James shouted, walking forwards to usher them back out the door.

"I needed to speak to Sirius," El ducked under James' arm and further into the room.

"No, El, you shouldn't be here." James spoke firmly, still adamant to make the girl leave so came up behind her and wrapped two strong arms around her waist, picking her up off the floor.

"Potter, put me down!" El attempted to worm her way out of his grasp but his grip stayed firm. "If you don't put me down right now-"

"Shut up," James snapped, carrying her to the door and putting her down next to where Marlene was standing.

Right before James fully shut the door, El put her hand out to stop it. "Regulus is a death eater."

James stopped pushing against Els hand and allowed her to open the door again.

"I saw him in the three broomsticks. Overheard him talking with some people," she continued.

Before Sirius could react, a pained cry came from the room above. "You both need to leave, right now." James ushered El and Marlene down the hill as best as he could but El remained rooted to the spot, staring at the pained look on Sirius' face.

Another scream from upstairs and a tug on Eleanors arm from Marlene, shocked into the reality of the fact that they were minutes away from Remus transitioning.

"Go, please," James pleaded.

El connected eyes with him, James sending her an understanding look before she turned and ran back down the hill.

They ran the whole way back to Hogwarts, having missed the carriages, only slowing to a walk when they were both out of breath.

"What were they saying, when you over heard the conversation?" Marlene panted, being the first to speak since they were at the shack.

"There was a woman there, i don't know who she was, she was older than us, probably about twenty five, maybe older. She was saying that they needed to get rid of the army that Dumbledore was forming," El explained.

"They know about The Order?"

She nodded. "They don't know who the members are, but they know that Dumbledore is collecting people to fight against you-know-who,"

Not knowing what else to say, Marlene continued to walk, both girls looking down at their shoes for what felt like the loss of their close friend.

A howl from the distance caused the girls walking to turn back into a run. The howl sounded again a few moments later, only closer this time.

The path they were walking on now gave the girls a clear view of the edge of the forbidden forest where they could see a wolf, stag and a dog— Wormtail was presumably being present but too small to see. The dark outline of a dog and a stag stood threateningly, facing away from the castle, attempting to herd the wolf back into the trees. Moony growled, trying to get past the two animals that blocked his path.

"We need to go before he notices we're here," Marlene whispered, tugging on Els sleeve.

The sound of a dog whining in pain caused them both to wince, turning around to see Padfoot lying on the floor a few feet away from the rest and Prongs struggling to keep Moony under control.

Knowing their was nothing they could do, the two girls begrudgingly turned to continue their walk to the castle.

Marlene could sense that tonight was a bad night for either to be alone, so followed El to her common room without any questions.

They sat on the sofa in silence, both with glasses of wine since they'd sobered up from earlier. It didn't take long for the wine to take effect and for Marlene to fall asleep, so El stood to get a blanket to place over her friend.

She wandered around the room, not knowing what to do with herself for the night since there was no hope of sleep. She opened the door to the head boys room and took off her own clothes other than her underwear, replacing them with James' same red hoodie she'd worn on all the way back on the first day of seventh year.

She perched awkwardly on the edge of his bed, as if she was waiting for something, not feeling comfortable laying fully down without its owner present. So instead, she settled for something she often did on full moons, which was sit on the window seat in James' room and smoke with the window open just a crack.

She couldn't recall how long she sat there, but it must've been a while when she finally heard someone walk through the tapestry into the common room.

The door to James' room opened, three boys standing by the door way, thankfully all looking close to unharmed. Sirius walked forward first, meeting El halfway to envelop her in a hug.

"I'm sorry about Reg," she whispered into his shoulder quietly, although still loud enough that she was sure he'd heard her.

"Don't be," Sirius murmured back, "You were closer to him than i was."

The gravity of his sentence sank in and she gave him a sad smile when they pulled apart, moving to hug Peter next.

"You okay?" El asked.

She felt him nod, "Just tired."

"You can take my bed."

Peter smiled thankfully before he and Sirius left the room.

"Nice jumper," James smirked, wrapping El in his own embrace that was far tighter than the others.

"Are you bleeding?" she asked, pulling away from him to look over his body and trying her best to mask her concern, "Wouldn't wanna ruin the jumper," she joked, forcing a smile onto her face.

"Are you okay about Regulus?" James frowned down at her, removing his glasses to rub the tiredness from his eyes.

The shake of Els head was the only answer James needed to wrap her in another hug, placing his chin on top of her head.

"Can i stay in here tonight?" she whispered.

"Funny you thought i was gonna let you leave."

***

a/n: word count 2.5k
heyyy its been a while, sorry im back at skl now n its horrible but happy friday!!
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ily n happy reading, pls vote if u enjoyed the chapter xx